1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for managing data. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for saving data used in error analysis within a data processing system.
2. Description of Related Art
A logical partitioning option (LPAR) within a data processing system (platform) allows multiple copies of a single operating system (OS) or multiple heterogeneous operating systems to be simultaneously run on a single data processing system platform. A partition, within which an operating system image runs, is assigned a non-overlapping sub-set of the platform's resources. These platform allocable resources include one or more architecturally distinct processors with their interrupt management area, regions of system memory, and I/O adapter bus slots. The partition's resources are represented by its own open firmware device tree to the OS image.
Each distinct OS or image of an OS running within the platform are protected from each other such that software errors on one logical partition cannot affect the correct operation of any of the other partitions. This is provided by allocating a disjoint set of platform resources to be directly managed by each OS image and by providing mechanisms for ensuring that the various images cannot control any resources that have not been allocated to it. Furthermore, software errors in the control of an OS's allocated resources are prevented from affecting the resources of any other image. Thus, each image of the OS (or each different OS) directly controls a distinct set of allocable resources within the platform.
The configuration of these different partitions are typically managed through a terminal, such as a hardware system console (HSC). These terminals use objects, also referred to as profiles that are defined and modified in HSC. The profiles are used to configure LPARs within the data processing system. Multiple HSCs may be present and used for maintaining and configuring LPARs in the data processing system. These profiles used to configure the data processing system in LPARs are often required to be accessible to any HSC that is in communication with the data processing system. Maintaining profiles between these HSCs are often difficult and require processes for maintaining synchronization of the profiles at each HSC.
These LPARs are often assigned processors and other hardware. For example, one LPAR may be assigned two processors, while another LPAR may be assigned three processors. If an error occurs, a service processor (SP), separate from the other five processors, will store data gathered from the processors and other hardware for analysis. This type of data is also referred to as dump data. This dump data and other information, such as error logs are typically stored in a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) for retrieval at a later time. This type of memory, however, has a number of limitations. As multi processor systems have grown larger, the amount of data that is stored has out grown the available NVRAM space. Additionally, this type of memory also may be easily corrupted because many software components may access this memory during normal operation. Further, the loss of battery power will cause the contents of the memory to be lost.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have improved method, apparatus, and computer implemented instructions for saving data used for error analysis.